D&D General BBEGs shouldn't miss.

[Tonguez]

Maybe all boss monsters should have Lair Actions and followers who act on their own initiative too.

 

[Flamestrike]

Maybe all boss monsters should have Lair Actions and followers who act on their own initiative too.

Its what legendary actions and resistances are for. Solo encounters.

 

[Lanefan]

For the sake of the PCs I don't mind if a BBEG misses now and then, because often when they hit they pack a serious punch and the one-attack reprieve always draws a sigh of relief from the player.

I'm running Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth at the moment (1e variant game) and last session the party met and fought Drelzna. I wasn't pulling my punches: of a party of 6 they outright lost two dead and the survivors are down a total of six levels between them. If she hadn't missed a few times it'd have probably been four dead and two fled, with Drelzna the victor and the party in ruins.

 

[Don Durito]

Why is the BBEG going toe to toe with the party when being overwhelmed due to the action economy is the likely result?

 

[Lanefan]

Why is the BBEG going toe to toe with the party when being overwhelmed due to the action economy is the likely result?

If the party's halfway smart it's because they planned it that way.

 

[Don Durito]

If the party's halfway smart it's because they planned it that way.

Well yes. But in that case I don't see why it's a problem it they take them down relatively easily. They earned it (because I would certainly play the BBEG as using all the resources at their disposal to not be caught in such a situation).

 

[tetrasodium]

This is why they invented legendary actions.

Non-legendary BBEGs should always come with a side of mooks.

5e removed the movement related AoOs and made ranged attacks work like melee do it takes a lot more that just a couple mooks

 

[DEFCON 1]

This just might be the case of simply making the BBEG's attack bonus higher than normal. So it almost usually will hit... but occasionally you might get that 1 or 2 rolled to cause a miss. No reason to make a special "no attack roll needed, auto-hit" ruling for a BBEG.

That being said... I also don't think there's anything wrong with creating special attacks that are shades of magic missile-- especially attacks that are force damage. Everyone knows MM auto-hits... so other spell-like force damage attacks that also auto-hit would not and should not confuse or annoy players.

 

[zarionofarabel]

This is what DM Screens are for.

Are you implying that the DM simply decide that the BBEG should hit, rather than roll for it?

 

[zarionofarabel]

The players get four turns to one turn of the Big Bad Evil Guy. It's fine if, in a combat that lasts three or four rounds, each PC misses once or twice, because overall the party still does something interesting each turn.

I don't think the boss should miss with their attacks, or at the very least they should have an effect regardless of whether their attack hits. This was a common design conceit in 4e, but not in 5e.

Now, in traditional video game RPGs, the PCs and the boss (almost) always hit, unless someone is hit with a condition like blinded. On the other hand, in many action video games the boss will try to do something dangerous, but you can dodge or parry it. However, there's always a sense of the boss being dangerous, and the PCs having to pick the right tactics to survive, rather than just relying on luck of the dice.

What do you think? Should D&D boss monsters have more abilities that don't require a die roll to be threatening?

I think there shouldn't be Boss Monster's. The idea of a Boss Monster means I'm playing a video game. I prefer to present my players with a living world. If I wanted them to play a video game, I would tell them to go do that.